Siobhan Kiely LLB is 24 years old and was born in Bury, Greater Manchester.
After gaining a Law degree in 2008, Kiely then went on to become a stay at home mother of two; Abigail and Zack.
Kiely’s personal experience from being a single and care free student-bum to quickly becoming a ‘clueless new mum’ inspired a mammoth task that was to become known as the ‘SUPERMUM mission’.
Our Aim:
‘To create a generation of SUPER-MUMS out of even the most clueless lazy ‘BUMS.’’
If a Lazy Student-Bum like me can do it …then so can YOU
The ‘shock to the system’ of motherhood
"I want to help other mums, like me; who have suffered from the ‘culture shock’ of motherhood, especially those who have post natal depression but also those who just need a positive push in the right direction.”
(Siobhan Kiely, Founder)
Background
Nothing quite prepares you for the days at home with children. Before them you were free and single, without a care in the world and then all of a sudden you have a million responsibilities to deal with.
You automatically think your careers gone, along with that hot body; so is all your free time and not to mention your money.
We want to help others because we know how it feels to be broke and bored watching cbeebies and shaking rattles all day.
We know how it feels to lose who YOU are and feel depressed when such massive change happens. We have been that person who stands looking in the mirror upset because we feel like a ‘fat old frumpy mum.’
We want people to know that it is natural for such enormous changes like those that come along with motherhood to ‘uproot’ people and leave them feeling confused and unfamiliar.
Here’s how Siobhan's story goes…
“before I had kids I was going somewhere. I was at law school doing intense and extremely difficult case analysis. I was alone in silent libraries researching complex issues for hours and hours. In my free time I was getting dressed up and dancing the night away. I picked up friends in my car and went wherever we wanted to… you know… just on a whim…because we could. I was desirable, exciting, and most of all… things were all about ME.”
But then, in the blink of an eye… your time no longer belongs to you… and thats 24-7. From now on there’s no such thing as sleep, or a rest or long relaxing baths or peace and quiet.
Yes you used to think the world revolved around you but all of a sudden you now come last in the ranks and you become a ‘servant girl’ …. feeding everyone, cleaning clothes,doing the dishes, scrubbing bottles, making up feeds, dressing people, tidying up, wiping bums, wiping snotty or dirty faces, tidying up again, reading kids books, changing nappies, fixing toys, sharpening coloured pencils, finding lost dummies, rocking prams, and of course tidying up AGAIN.
It’s a total shock to the system
Early mornings and disturbed nights can really start to get to you. There’s often so much to do all at once that it’s really easy to keep forgetting what you were doing (when you keep getting distracted by the kids and their constant demands!)
There’s shame, embarrassment, a certain ‘weakness’ and social stigma associated to the issue of post natal depression. Nobody wants to admit how they feel because they think it’ll trigger more health visitors coming and we worry about those secret ‘notes’ between professionals that could suggest we’re unfit mums if we admit that things are getting on top of us.
I want to help these people because I’ve been there too and many people could do with some extra help with the adjustment process… the change from single life to parenthood is definitely gradual but there are also some tools available that can help us along the way. The aim is to help people with getting on top of things and not being overwhelmed by it all.
Treating post natal depression
Obviously the chemical imbalance in the brain due to pregnancy hormones can be treated with medication so this is a doctor and patient issue.
With the illness we can only recommend to see your doctor today because medication can change your life and there’s no time like right NOW.
The focus, in the Student bum to Super-mum mission, is on the other things that contribute to the depression, like the overwhelming million and one tasks to do and getting your head around the changes that you’ll need to make to become a ‘mum’.
We want to help show people that things can be broken down into smaller chunks and made more easily digestible than they first appear.